Stevens, of Harrisburg, runs the political wing of Planned Parenthood. Counting votes and reading legislative tea leaves is her stock in trade.

So it wasn’t hard for her to figure out what Texas’ majority Republican Legislature and its vocally conservative chief executive were going to do.

In case you missed it, Perry has signed one of the most restrictive bans on abortions in the country into law. Opponents say the law, which bans abortions after 20 weeks and imposes tough new health and safety standards, could force dozens of clinics to close.

The law allows exceptions only to protect the life of the mother or when a fetus has “severe abnormalities,” Reuters reported.

Protests in the Texas Legislature derailed a vote before the end of the most recent legislative session. But Perry, a Republican, called lawmakers back for a special session and opponents were unable to mount a second blockade.

The 20-week ban is just shy of the 22-week standard for which a fetus is considered viable, or able to live independently outside a mother’s womb. In practical terms, that’s about halfway through the 38-week length of most pregnancies.

Stevens called the bill signing a “sad day for women’s health care,” yet she also acknowledged that the debate had presented her group with an opportunity.

“People are excited and mobilized,” she said. “The interest in women’s healthcare is in full throttle. Donors are 100 percent paying attention.

In nearly the same breath, though, Stevens says what happened in Texas is “terrifying.” And she’s right.

And it’d be one thing if it were the work of isolated loons. But it’s not.

The Texas ban is part of a larger nationwide effort, including Pennsylvania, to legislatively chip away at a women’s right to an abortion.

And make no mistake; until a court says otherwise, it’s a legal right. And it’s a core part of women’s healthcare.

That may seem like a large number, but according to Guttmacher data, 92 percent of Texas counties did not have abortion provider within their borders. And about a third of the state’s women lived in those counties.

That means if Lone Star clinics do close, as critics predict they will, women in Texas will have to drive or fly greater and greater distances to obtain an abortion. Or some may not be able to obtain one at all.

For abortion opponents, that may seem like a reason to celebrate. But what it actually does is put needless obstacles in the way of women seeking a legally allowable and often medically necessary procedure.

In Kansas, for instance, doctors are required to tell women that, after 20 weeks, a fetus will feel pain. And, if they go through with the procedure, it will “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”

Doctors are also required to tell women the procedure puts them at greater risk for breast cancer – a claim that’s been refuted by the National Cancer Institute, Salon reported.

And in Alabama, a new law requires women seeking such abortion medication as RU-486, which had previously been available by teleconference, to be physically examined by a doctor. Critics say this creates a barrier to women who live in remote and rural areas, Salon reported.

According to data provided by the state Department of Health, five clinics have closed their doors since the law went on the books. There were 24 clinics before the law went into effect. Now 19 remain.

Of the five that shut down, three closed voluntarily and two were shut down by the state, a Health Department spokeswoman said.

Of the 19 now in operation, 13 obtained licenses to operate as outpatient surgical facilities.

One was denied a license and can now only perform medical abortions, three had only been performing medical abortions at the time the law was implemented and were not subject to the law (they still only perform medical abortions) and two fell under a hospital license and also were not subject to the new law, the agency said,

“Our abortion clinic regulation law came in response to the Gosnell case,” said Maria Vitale Gallagher, the legislative director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. “That story was about full-term babies being killed and women dying. Each bill [in each state] is … unique.”

Barring this one piece of micromanagement, Pennsylvania punted on running the exchanges, opting to leave them in the hands of the feds. State and federal law already bar the commingling of tax dollars for abortion coverage.

And the ban has the collateral effect of blocking women from using their own money from purchasing private coverage for the procedure.

Supporters say the state is simply exercising its right to opt out of providing abortion coverage.

But layered on top of the health standards and a thankfully failed push for controversial mandatory ultrasounds, it’s hard to see this as anything other than part of an orchestrated effort to attack abortion legislatively.

Gallagher, of the Pro-Life Federation, doesn’t see it that way.

“If I went to a healthcare provider, I would want to know that he’s being inspected and regulated and has the good housekeeping seal of approval,” she said.

For Stevens, though, the clinic standards law was a solution in search of a problem. Despite the Gosnell horror, Pennsylvania “had a .122 percent complication rate,” she said. “There wasn’t a problem.”

And access to a basic part of women’s healthcare remains a problem, she said. Abortion providers are clustered in less than a half-dozen of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

“If you look at our Legislature, we choose banning a woman’s ability to purchase abortion coverage with her own money over making bridges and roads safe,” she said. “If you look at the priorities of what came in and what out, it’s astonishing.”

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